


immaculately believe

by guan_lupe



Series: ain't them bodies saints [3]
Category: Christian Bible, Christian Bible (New Testament), Christian Lore
Genre: Biblical Scripture References (Abrahamic Religions), Dark, Demonic Possession, Gen, Internal Conflict, Mysticism, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 14:11:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16914357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guan_lupe/pseuds/guan_lupe
Summary: the devil visits a woman he can't quite figure out(also a rebellion against the recent film)





	immaculately believe

**Author's Note:**

> "The world into which I had to project myself while I spoke through Screwtape was all dust, grit, thirst, and itch. Every trace of beauty, freshness, and geniality had to be excluded. It almost smothered me before I was done. It would have smothered my readers if I had prolonged it."
> 
> C.S. Lewis,  
> Introduction to _Screwtape Proposes a Toast_ (1959)

"Sorry I haven't visited you in some time, all eyes had been on me after what happened in Jerushalayim. Now I have all the freedom in the world!"

The Devil smiles a smile that will never (but never say never) uncrook itself. Yet though his smile is crooked, he has the straightest of teeth within that angelic little mouth of his.

"Why don't you tell me some of your experience with it?"

"Why don't you say my name?" Maryam feels the breath leave her lungs as she asks.

She's living with Johanan and caring for the Virgin Mother, in Ephesus, and currently fasting. She's in her sparse chamber, the moonlight bright through her latticed window.

She'd been having thoughts of pantheism.

"Oh." The Devil's eyes avert. His expression is one of ignorant surprise.

He giggles. "Sorry. Uh. Maryam?"

So intimate. _Why did you ask him to say your name?_

The sulfur is getting stuck in Maryam's throat. "I have this feeling;" the femininity rises in her voice; her guardian angel keeps her from fainting, and she praises God for it; "that you know how it was for me. That you saw, everything, very carefully."

"Maybe." The Devil grins as though he's said something worth a great joke. "You know me, right?"

Maryam's jaw has tightened and her lip trembles.

"Why have you come here, now? I won't stand your games. If you wanted redemption, you'd have bowed at Golgolta."

"My former Lord, Jeshua ben Josef, and I spent a very long time together," the Devil explains like he would to a particularly obtuse child, even wagging his finger. "However, I found he couldn't really take care of himself, or anyone else, much less me. He got himself killed!" He says it with his hands extended, as though demonstrating the uselessness of such a master.

"Unlike you." He pats the mat Maryam sleeps on, and shuts his eyes denoting gravity. "It was really inspiring to watch how you threw yourself into the scene of his death like a true performer."

His eyes open and wander around the room, and a ghost of a mocking smile twitches at his lips. Back to Maryam, they glitter in the moonlight with malice.

"I was particularly moved by your lamentations and your clinging to the virgin."

Virgin, Virgin, Virgin. The Virgin.

Maryam sobs and falls onto her mat, and nearly faints. Bile rises up through her esophagus. Taking a stone, she strikes it to her wall and grinds it down to form a white line. Then, she strikes to the left, and drags it across to the right.

To form a Cross. Then, she looks back with blazing eyes to the Devil who danced up her doorstep.

Satan, the Accuser, pokes the dexterous and tiny tip of his tongue out to taste the side of his mouth. He's overwhelmed by the symbol. A look of arousal shades his gaze.

"The carnage was lovely," he breathes, in a solemn tone.

He returns in six years, to when Maryam is living in Aquae Sextiae and Johanan in Patmos.

"As you grow to be as old as me, you learn the truth," he says sadly to Maryam, who hasn't slept, plagued with memories, missing the Virgin Mother, and doubting her own husband's need to have been exiled to that island.

"Some people don't even realize they're unaware of the truth. The men Simon bar Jonah and Shaul Tarsi will both be killed soon. I wouldn't hold too much against them, if I were you. Holding a grudge against someone gives unto that person's thoughts and actions unnecessary weight. They've been very accommodating to me in their travels, especially in Roma. More than all the others! - All those who will attend me, and there are many. Roma is much larger than Jerushalayim. If you want to go there, it's an easier road than they say. I manage a large portion of Nero's advisement. There's a lot of promise in the future for Roma, and Roman women and young boys love to flirt. But, enough about me."

The Devil flutters his lashes. "Tell me why you haven't slept, and what you do in the middle of the night, anyway."

"Get behind me, Satan."

"No, you've got to say it like him, see?"

Satan shakes his head, impatient with Maryam. He clears his throat, and makes an expression mocking holiness and says, " _Húpage opísō mou, Satanã!_ He spoke to me in the language of the learned."

Maryam can't seem to remember how to pray.

"I have to admit, it makes me a little sad to think on our adventures in our youth. How much fun we had, and now that I'm in this new world, alone without him." Satan sighs. "Do you feel alone?"

Maryam remembers how to pray and she's granted healing tears that burst forth from her with such innocence, such love for God, and such pain.

Satan must step outside and vomit.

In ten years, he returns.

It's late summer and he screams, "I came so close to being annihilated! How could you know what that's like? Wait till you realize your lord was a sodomite who never wanted you but wanted your young husband. And here I am. And you look at me with pity!? I hardly need pity. Apologies if anything I've said to you came off as needing pity. I don't like to complain."

Maryam watches the ouroboros spin out of control. Like the force of quicksand. She does, indeed, pity the Devil.

"The world will be mine." Satan's eyes cross in confusion as he says it, then wrench apart again.

Maryam winces and actually reaches out to him in sympathy. Conscience stills her. The Virgin straightens her spine, and the Lord breathes a kiss onto her lips, that says: _no_.

A look of horror crosses Satan's face, because he can see. He weeps horrible tears and falls to the ground, howling.

But, then, he looks up and pulls out his Fool card: "You're going to die, Maryam of Magdala."

Maryam nods. In a sense, one day, she'll die. But she's being offered Eternal Life. And it's all Ways in One. And if only the Devil could know he'll shine, too.

Legends say St. Mary Magdalene was fed food directly from angels up till the time she died; it's true. And Micha'el (who is like God) favored her.

**Author's Note:**

> Remember, the Devil is a liar 😘


End file.
